Prego Mego – Week 37!

29May

hi everyone 🙂

{Since it is a holiday weekend, I decided to extend the giveaway until Monday night. It will end at 12 and I’ll announce the winner the next morning}

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days. We have had quite a bit going on. On Tuesday I turned 37 weeks! I never actually realized this, but my previous OB had my change days on Mondays. So, maybe technically I turned 37 weeks Monday. Regardless, I’m so happy Cohen is doing good and staying in just as long as he can 🙂

He is still scheduled to arrive a week from Monday. We had an appointment this past Wednesday with the OB. Though I’ve already posted about it, I’m am going to include the two paragraphs in this post as well…..

On Wednesday, they didn’t do his measurements in his ultrasound. They just checked the fluid and did a mini ECHO on his heart to send to the cardiologist. His heart is still of course not looking normal…at all. The girl doing the sonogram didn’t give us any new details. Let’s just hope and pray maybe it has gotten somewhat better and not at all worse, k? I have a few pics of his little profile that I will post tomorrow evening in the Prego Mego post. He was very active and showing breathing pattern, which are both good. My fluid actually increased! I didn’t even know it could do that. Last week it was around an 8, which gave the doctor some concern, and this week it was a 12. So that is much better. My blood pressure is good, 110/70, and I somehow lost 2.5 lbs. I think that is because Cohen must be eating more. I’m eating lots I feel like. I can’t believe I’m considered full term now. So thankful!

I’m getting swollen, I can tell. My shoes are getting tight, so I’m sticking to my comfy yoga mat flops most of the time.

I feel good a few hours at a time and I feel bad a few hours at a time. I’ve been having lots of aches and some nausea. I’m certain the nausea has something to do with the fact it is almost close to 100 degrees outside in Dallas everyday. The aches, I’m sure, are Cohen getting a bit uncomfortable, therefore having me get uncomfortable : / I can’t stand for long periods of time at all. Walking is even better than standing. Don’t worry, I know the pain is SO worth the gain. I’m not complaining, just putting it all out there. Believe me, I’d probably be happy with him in my belly for as long as he wanted to be.

I honestly could just sit and watch him move around 🙂 He tickles me too and it’s pretty funny at times.

I’m not sleeping very much. I’m tired and I can get somewhat comfortable, I simply close my eyes and don’t fall to sleep. I guess my mind just starts racing. God is preparing me for many awake hours I’m certain. Brent arrived yesterday Thursday and I have slept much better :)…which is nice.

Thursday afternoon, we took a tour of the hospital. We toured the pre-op room that I will be in. We then went to the labor and delivery area that I will be in. It’s considered the high risk part whether for the mom’s sake or the baby’s sake. There will be a special family room for our friends and family waiting the arrival of Cohen. They gave us LOTS of info and the staff was SUPER nice. The ladies we spoke with in the NICU had already gotten emails on baby Cohen. That was a good feeling to know they are expecting him. They answered all our questions (that we could think of at the time) and gave us lots of information, some paperwork and contact information in case we wanted to call with any questions. I honestly can’t get over how welcoming they were. I will tell you I almost lost it a few times having to hear and see so much, but I didn’t want any negative energy around the babies in the NICU so I kept it together pretty well. I just tried not to think about how my baby would be in there before we knew it. The babies were beautiful. There were different rooms that were full of babies in different situations. There were nurses surrounding them.

I will tell you it made me pretty sad not to see many parents. I know there are all sorts of situations where mommies and daddies cannot be there around there around the clock (or even 8 hours a day) with their baby, but it still made me sad. According to the NICU rules, can be with Cohen almost 24 hours a day except a few hours every morning when the doctors are doing their rounds. Though our situation is not going to be easy…mentally, physically or financially, I’m thankful I’ll be able to be with Cohen at the hospital.

Honestly, it still doesn’t seem surreal yet. It is a week from Monday and then it will be reality, which I know will still be completely different than what I’m going through now. I’m so scared but I am still also so excited to see and meet him.

The lady who is head of the NICU gave us her card before we left and also gave us a pretty baby blue crocheted blanket. Cohen will seriously have the best blankets ever. You can see more here, here andhere. She also said it’s a great idea to start sleeping with it so he will have our smells (which we had already planned to do with all of his special blankets:) I think I’ll have about 2 or blankets in bed with me this week and Brent will have 2 in bed with him. Thankfully, Brent is here for a long weekend and heading back Monday. He will return on Friday.

Once Cohen is stabilized they will take him from my delivery room (or a room next door where they may stabilize him post delivery) to the NICU. While he is in route, they will knock on our waiting room door for our family to see him. I’ll then go to the recovery area and then a postpartum room. Brent or a grandparent will be able to be with Cohen while and when he is taken to the NICU. They do not know how long Cohen will be in the NICU before he goes to Children’s.t really depends on how he is doing and what they find when they exam him. I’m supposed to be down for 12 hours before getting up. The NICU ladies did tell me that if they had to get him to Children’s within the 12 hours, they would figure out a way for me to see him first. I made sure to ask. I will see him briefly once he is delivered but he will be risked away pretty quickly, more than likely.

Here I am this week….

Most of the itchy rash from my allergy to black dye has disappeared off my belly (I talked about this is prego mego last week), but it has moved to my hips some (as you may can see) and behind one of my knees.

I liked the above shirt ($7 maternity clearance at Target), but I did wear it for our photo shoot with Children’s and I’m starting to think it may have not been the best pick for my puffy arms to be in pictures! Oh well….that’s just part of pregnancy. The photo shoot was yesterday (Friday) morning. It is part of the documentary process. It was fun and the photographer said Brent and I are great to photograph, which seems crazy. Neither of us ever feel photogenic. They took some video too. They will be giving me a disk so I’ll upload pics and post some of them. You may see a lot of our pics soon, as I still have some maternity ones to share as well.

Here Cohen is this week… (As I mentioned, his ultrasound was a bit different so the settings for pictures weren’t the normal ones. I can tell what these are because they showed and told me. The first two are profile/skull and the bottom is a foot:)On Wednesday, the doctor did put me in a splint to wear on my wrist when I sleep. She explained why I had gotten Carpel Tunnel so bad. She immediately looked down and my hands and saw how swollen they are next to my little wrists. She just said with the swelling and retaining, the wrists are so small the the nerves get smooshed and the joints don’t work right It is worse when I sleep because I probably smoosh the wrist more cutting off more circulation. Literally, if I reach for my glass of water or phone when just waking up, I pretty much scream at the pain. It is kind of like I forget though because it doesn’t hurt during the day time AT ALL. She said she got it terribly when she was pregnant. She also said (just as many of you have) that it will probably disappear right away once Cohen is born.

attractive, huh?After our photo shoot with Children’s yesterday, we grabbed some lunch and did some searching for a place to “live” in the future. Once Cohen is able to come “home” from the hospital (whether after surgery or between surgeries), he still must be 30 minutes within the hospital. We have been so fortunate to have a great place prior to his arrival and we a praying something else that fits us comes along for the future. It’s kind of hard to plan with no dates and time frames. I’m trying not to stress about it because I expect it to be a while away. I do have stress about our house still not selling!

Since Cohen won’t be wearing clothes for a while, I decided to get him some little beanies.I did a quick search online and came across Tiny Tots & Polka Dots. I emailed the contact, Erin, and she was so nice and easy to work with. I told her what I was looking for and some colors and she whipped these up and sent them to me. I told her what color beanies (2 greens, 2 blues & a white). I had her to pick some fonts and their colors and I think they turned out super cute 🙂 Thanks, Erin!

Megan,I am almost positive that you have people reaching out left and right…but I wanted to join with them! I live in Frisco,TX, which is about 20 miles North of where you guys are.

I have lived in Texas for almost 20 years so I am very familiar with the area. I would LOVE to be able to help you out in someway, anyway.

If you need anything- meals, help cleaning the house, laundry done, errands ran…ANYTHING- I need and want you both to contact me, I'm serious.

I have been reading your story for months now, and decided it was time for me to introduce myself! I am so excited that you are so close and really hope that you will take me up on my offer to help you!!

I just realized that one of my very good friends works at Children's Medical Center in Dallas- will Cohen be there at all? She's a nurse in the Cardia NICU so if Cohen was there she'd definitely be working with y'all since she works on babies with heart issues. BTW- you look adorable! =)

Meg, you obviously don't know me but I've been thinking about you a lot. I say you and not Cohen… I'll explain my reasons. You are a wonderful lady, always full of life and energy and you're obviously focus on Cohen the way any soon-to-be mom would. I want to focus on you because I'm afraid you will need more nurturing than you think… and I'm speaking about the best case scenario, you know? Somehow I feel this urge to protect you and I don't even know you 🙂 But I want you to know that you're like a flower.. I love your ebullience, your optimism but I also love your sensitivity. So, here's my take on that… please, VENT. If you feel like loosing it, LOOSE IT. Despite what people say and think, don't be hostage of your culture. It's OK to acknowledge negative thoughts and live through them, it's actually healthy, for you and the baby. Just be confident that whatever is thrown at you you DO indeed have all the energies and the qualities to overcome it. Because you are brave! Brave people are the ones who are afraid of something and yet they face it (the ones who aren't afraid of stuff they should be afraid are just tuned out, definitely NOT BRAVE LOL). So little flower don't doubt about your incredible capability of rigenerating. And if you feel like venting, I'm here for you.

You look absolutely adorable!! I cannot believe the time is almost here…it flew by, huh?! I know mine did, and we're just a few weeks apart. 🙂 We have been praying for you, baby Cohen, and your family, and will continue to do so as he prepares to make his debut. 🙂

Love your blog and you guys are always in my thoughts. Just to put this out there and we're probably just a little too far away, but you're always welcome to live with us if you needed to. We live just north of Fort Worth. Like I said it's probably a little too far but I thought I'd throw it out there. You're doing great, hang it there. The last weeks are the toughest as far as being a baby oven. 😉

I remember when my niece was in the NICU and noticing how many parents were not there. Just like you will be, my sister was blessed to be able to be there each day and my brother-in-law was a doc at the same hospital so he could come and visit in between cases and surgeries. I know the days get long and lonely in there but you being there is exactly what Cohen needs to heal!

Megan,I have not posted before, but I have been reading your blog for awhile since I saw the link on a friend, of a friends blog. Both my babies were born early were in the the NICU. They were able to wheel me in (even in the post op bed) a few hours after my c-section for a few minutes so I could see and touch their hand. This was at two different hospitals and both were super nice and sympathetic to a mom's NEED to see her baby even during the most critical times. So I will pray that you will have the chance for them to wheel your bed in to see Cohen before he is transported. Though I am praying for a miracle that Cohen is doing so much better than they are anticipating.

You look so great! I know you must have a ton of different feelings about the coming months and I really admire you for how well you are coping and relying on God's strength for peace that passes all understanding. I am so excited for you as Cohen's birthday rapidly approaches! Praying for you guys!

I am sitting here just crying for you. I am an emotional person anyways, but I wish you first pregnancy, your first experience at being a mommy didn't have to be this way. I can't imagine how overwhelmed you are. I am praying for the Lord to give you the strength when you need it. Megan, I pray for Cohen all the time, but I am specifically praying for you right now. I am praying for you support system around to lift you up when you need it and just to be there for you. Even though we've never met, I feel like we are friends as long as we have been reading blogs and fb friends. I am thinking of you and saying a prayer for you right now. You look great and the pictures of Cohen are so cute!